London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Peter Bill on property: A second bite at the cherry in this garden

The government is set to announce the appointment of leading City figure Michael Cassidy as chairman of Britain’s next “garden city”, at Ebbsfleet in Kent.

The 67-year-old former non-executive director of British Land and eminent lawyer is a member of the Crossrail board and long served as chairman of key City Corporation policy and planning committees.

Cassidy’s two-day-a-week job is to oversee the setting up of the Ebbsfleet Urban Development Corporation, to be based in offices in north Kent. A board of nine to 12 members and a full-time chief executive are being sought. The UDC has been granted a £200 million budget and permission to hire 70 staff.

The plan was first announced by Chancellor George Osborne in March, as the first of 10 garden city initiatives to increase housing supply. There are already plans for 10,000 new homes in the area on land owned by Land Securities.

The UDC boundaries will stretch east from Bluewater, embracing the HS1 station at Ebbsfleet. They will also go down to and including the Swanscombe peninsula, where a £2 billion theme park is planned (see below).

One priority will be to forge a tram link between the station and Bluewater shopping centre. Another is to extend the current Oyster card system out to Ebbsfleet and provide cheaper fares for the 17-minute ride to St Pancras.

The Conservatives are keen to get Ebbsfleet founded in time for the next election.

The necessary legislation will be pushed though by next March and Cassidy will report to Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles.

Osborne’s “flagship policy” is being pushed past a slightly unwilling Pickles. The Communities Secretary has long been averse to the development corporations, which often fail to deliver. As did one on the very same spot.

Kent Thameside shut in 2011. Its one-time boss is the ebullient Jackie Sadek, who now works in the Cabinet Office as a ministerial adviser. Last week she admitted her UDC was “entirely dysfunctional”.

“Frankly we could not get anything done, because of the waste of energy in attrition between the warring public-sector agencies,” she blogged. Her board consisted of eight public bodies and Land Securities.

“I would fervently hope that folk wake up in time, learn the lessons of yesteryear and not repeat the same mistakes,” she warned in words that were almost certainly vetted by ministers. “An effective independent chair is a start, and I would trust that he or she is fully involved from the start.

“During my own sojourn in Kent, there was huge scope for people to not deliver housing. We had a prevailing climate of nimbyism of course. And nobody ever got sacked for not doing things.”

Happily, there are indications that lessons have been learned. Cassidy is reported to be fully involved in selecting the chief executive and the board. One that will not include landowners, or as many local authority representatives.

That will please Sadek: “I would like to think that something truly positive could be gleaned from the most dysfunctional and exhausting experience that I (and those valiant souls working with me) have ever had in urban regeneration.”

Entertainment comes to Ebbsfleet

By far the most-challenging project to fall under the sway of the new Ebbsfleet development corporation will be the London Paramount Entertainment Resort.

The £2 billion, Kuwaiti-backed project is set on Swanscombe peninsula, within the boundary of the new planning authority, on 700 acres of land owned by Land Securities and Lafarge. The Government has already marked the project as having “national significance”, allowing the developers to sidestep the local authority planning minefield.

The development company is 75% owned by Kuwaiti European Holding, (KEH) controlled by the powerful Al-Humaidi family. A deal has been signed to use the Paramount film brand.

The public consultation promises 27,000 new jobs, 5000 hotel rooms and 15 million visitors a year. The programme shows work starting in late 2016 and completing in 2019.

Jonas back on familiar ground as he doubles as photographer

Property grandee Christopher Jonas is also a snapper, and a pretty classy one at that, judging by his double-take shot of shoppers strolling down Burlington Arcade, below.

More than 60 photographs taken by the 72-year-old former Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors president are on show in the main atrium of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, until 29 August. Jonas of course has some pull with the powers that be, upstairs in said tower.

The former senior partner of Drivers Jonas — now Deloitte Real Estate — was a director of the Canary Wharf Group between 1994 and 2004.